I’ve been honored to speak at many organizations throughout the Midwest since Songs of My Families has been published. This June 22nd I have been asked to speak at the Como Cottage Concert Series. (Events tab.) I can hardly wait.
The series is hosted by one of Minnesota’s most gifted poets, Timothy Young, and his very talented wife Dalyce Elliott. Tim has published numerous books, CDs of music and poetry, and chapbooks. His most notable works are Herds of Bears Surround Us and Building in Deeper Water. Brad has a copy of Tim’s poem Men Don’t Dance in America framed and mounted just before the entrance to his psychology session room in Hastings. They have been good friends since the Robert Bly Men’s Conferences in the 1980s. (Now he’s my friend, too!)
I have been lucky enough to see Tim’s wife Dalyce channel goddess energy through her violin. She is one of those rare and soulful talents. (Maybe she’ll play a little before I read.)
I will be speaking about my time in Korea and my reunions with my Korean mother and my daughter Suzie. And I will read from Songs of My Families.
Here is the information about the event. (Reservations requested):
The Como Cottage Concert Series’
Timothy Young and Dalyce Elliott present
Author of Songs of My Families
KELLY FERN
Saturday June 22, 2013 7:30 pm
1610 Fernwood St. St. Paul, MN 55108
***Seating is limited to 25
so reserve your seat at tim@twoboots.net
or call 651-488-4896
Our Como Park house sits just north of the Como Lake golf course, east of the State Fair grounds, west of Lexington and south of Larpenteur. From Minneapolis, take 35W North, to Hwy 36, to Hamline Exit. Exit and turn south on Hamline until Larpenteur, turn east to Fernwood, go south one block to 1610 Fernwood.
Due to the intimacy of the concert, this is a perfume-free environment
Seats go quickly, PLEASE RSVP SOON TO RESERVE A SEAT
Songs of My Families
A Thirty-Seven-Year Odyssey from Korea to America and Back
Kelly Fern, Brad Fern, MA, LAMFT
In 1971, Lee Myonghi, aged five, was taken from her family and placed in a Korean orphanage. Six months later, she was flown to the United States, where she and two other Korean girls were adopted by a Minnesota couple. They renamed her Kelly Jean. Eleven years later, Kelly found herself at the doorstep of a Minnesota agency, although this time as a teen mother giving her own child up for adoption. Kelly later married and had two more children. Then, in 2007, Kelly’s husband found her original, Korean family, and so began a journey that reunited Kelly with the family whom she thought had abandoned her, and brought her face to face with the daughter she herself had lost twenty-five years before.
Told with refreshing honesty, Songs of My Families is the moving story of two generations of women forced to make agonizing choices as they coped with harsh economic realities and personal crises. It is also an affirmation of the strength of family, the importance of one’s cultural heritage, and the enduring power of love.
Kelly Fern was born in Geumsan, South Korea, and came to the United States when she was five years old. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in European Studies. She is a behavioral detection officer for the Department of Homeland Security and a French language interpreter. Kelly lives with her husband and their two children in Minneapolis.
Brad Fern is a psychotherapist in private practice in Hastings, Minnesota. He has been involved in mythopoetic men’s work since 1986. He is the co-author of Ashes to Gold: The Alchemy of Mentoring the Delinquent Boy and Songs of My Families.
Songs of My Families 